Volunteer motivated to run Marathon by Mongolian Nomads

Emily Huxtable is one of the few volunteers to go out to Mongolia with Projects Abroad in the depths of the Mongolian Winter. However, she proved that she’s clearly made of stern stuff by running the London Marathon this year to raise money for projects in Mongolia.

Emily volunteered on the Nomad Project in Mongolia and lived with a local Mongolian family in a traditional tent known as a ger. She tells us,

‘If you had to ask me which was harder out of running the London Marathon and a Mongolian winter, I'd have to say they were about the same. They were both very mentally and physically demanding; living two months in what felt like a freezer was really tough but the intense heat and pain of running a marathon is also pretty hard. I ran the marathon carrying some injuries and at times I just felt like I would never reach the finish line.

I suppose in the end it's the people and the atmosphere around you which carries you through. The nomads were great at picking up on my mood, it must be the fact that we were living constantly in each others pockets, they would never say anything, but I’d find that in an hour I'd be back to normal laughing with them as we chased lambs around the ger. With the marathon I could be absolutely dead on my feet and just one person shouting my name or clapping as I ran past would lift me up again.

The day I left my Nomad host family in Mongolia I told them that I would return to see them all again, and I wasn't just being polite. I hope to return on the Trans-Siberian in July or August this year, even if it is only for a couple of weeks, I can't wait to see them all again. It was only when I returned from Mongolia that I realized what an effect they had on my life and how much they changed me as a person. They really were the driving force when I was running the marathon.’